Women's health across the lifespan has received renewed attention in recent years from the local to federal level, with President Joe Biden recently launching an effort to increase federally funded research in this long-overlooked area. . This effort is also active at Washington University's McKelvey School of Engineering in St. Louis, where a new elective course in the Department of Biomedical Engineering includes a course on how engineering can be used to solve women's health issues. There are many students who are interested in.
The “Engineering for Women's Health” course (BME 4780/5780) is available to undergraduate and graduate students and is taught by Michelle Owen, associate professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Center for Women's Health Engineering. Initially, Ms. Owen offered her 16 seats on the course, but due to demand she quickly increased her number of students to 48.
The course includes lectures on female reproductive anatomy and physiology, guest speakers from femtech (women's health-focused technology) companies and startups, medical school researchers, case studies, and panel discussions. Masu.
“Bringing in engineers from these startups allows students to talk to people who are actually working in the field,” Owen said. “There are a lot of women's health startups in the femtech space, and it's a $1 trillion market. There are a lot of opportunities for young engineers to work in this space.”
During a recent class meeting, Christine O'Brien, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and co-founder and chief scientific officer of Armor Medical Inc., and Christine O'Brien, co-founder and chief executive officer of Armor Medical Kelsey Mayo is here. Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Mayo provided students with details about their investor pitch and how the company was founded. They also shared information about their device, a wrist-worn early monitoring system for obstetric hemorrhage. Obstetric hemorrhage is a severe blood loss that occurs in 5% of all births and is 90% preventable if detected and treated early.
Mayo, who survived the blood loss, told the students the company was her “passion project” and encouraged them to find their own projects.
“Your day job should be a place where your passion meets the needs of the world,” she said. “This is a great thing for biomedical engineers to consider.”
Owen said the focus on the femtech field is important to students' education and gives them an idea of what they can do after graduation.
“Part of what's happened in the last 10 years is shining a light on the fact that there are all these issues that used to be only whispered about among women and not brought to light,” Owen said. Ta. “People now realize this is very important because there is an unmet need in healthcare and this has a huge impact. The most common surgeries for women are caesarean sections and hysterectomies. Half of all women have had a hysterectomy by the age of 65, which is a big deal.”
In this course, students complete group projects that address women's health needs, including menopause, osteoporosis, hip fractures, and lack of muscle mass.
Annika Avula, a dual degree student with a bachelor's and master's degree in biomedical engineering, took the course after taking O'Brien's course, Quantitative Physiology II (BME 301B), last fall. He said he wanted to do it.
“It opened the eyes of so many people to what can be done for women's health,” Avula said. “This course taught me a new way of thinking. I'm more interested in problems and I get called more often to ask questions.”
Ella Hanson, a fourth-year student with bachelor's and master's degrees in biomedical engineering, said she took the course because she was interested in women's health issues.
“Dr. Owen and Dr. O'Brien are addressing the huge BME gap in women's health,” Hanson said. “We are learning that there are many more opportunities in the world of engineering beyond orthopedics and other biomedical problems.”
Avula's group project is investigating the effects of menopause, and Hanson's group project is investigating endometriosis. Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects 11% of women of reproductive age in the United States and has no cure.
Ms. Owen said that although it took her some time to get used to using women's health language in front of an audience, her students were positive about talking about women's health issues and using that vocabulary, and that this will help them in the future. He said he feels it will be an encouragement to generations.
“I realized that I wasn't going to change the world, but I was going to teach people who would,” Owen said.
Originally published on the McKelvey School of Engineering website
